Reality is Always Better
by LosingInTranslation
Summary: The unresolved issues in Catherine’s life decided that this was the night she needed to deal with them. YoBling Smut


**_DISCLAIMER:_** Don't own anything associated with the show… I just like playing with the characters in it from time to time. Dance Monkeys! Dance!

**_RATING:_** M-Mature (for adult sexual content)

**_PAIRINGS:_** Yo!Bling

**_SPOILERS:_** Season 7

**_SUMMARY:_** The unresolved issues in Catherine's life decided that this was the night she needed to deal with them. Smut

**_A/N: _**Okay, I have been seriously looking for a way to write another Yo!Bling Smut story for quite a while, but frankly nothing jumped out at me during Season 7. Well, sometimes he helps to re-watch episodes without all of that anticipation, so when I was watching Leaving Las Vegas the other night I started thinking about that "big hole in the ground" and what would happen if Sam's legacy was ever finished. That led me to Catherine in a hotel room, and we all where that's gonna end up.

**_ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS:_** This one wouldn't have been possible without my Yo!Bling inspiration, and my Yo!Bling consultant. They both got me through a rough spot in this one, and their input was invaluable.

_**REVIEWS:**_ Reviews are the way I know if people are enjoying the work or not. So, if you leave one, THANKS! And if not, I hope you found at least a little something to brighten your day, and thanks for taking the time to read.

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She could never be sure just how long she had been standing there. She had spent the entire night in a fog, wandering from room to room, speaking without thinking to the countless, nameless faces which fought to penetrate the haze over her perception. It barely registered to her that the din of the party seemed to have faded, but she was unable to pull herself away to investigate the reason.

There was nothing that seemed to be able to tear her from that spot. She stood perfectly still, staring out into the Vegas skyline, the lights dancing in the heat rising from the desert floor surrounding them. Nights in Las Vegas were the things of dreams; often written about and photographed, but nothing could compare to actually being there. Sam always told her that those pictures were nothing but bait for the trap. _"Just a little something to whet their appetites. But the reality, Mugs…that's what keeps 'em coming back for more."_

The sound of her father's voice filled her thoughts, and the glow of the lights reflecting into the window glinted off of the tears that began to streak down her cheeks. It had been more than a year since she shed a tear for the man who had died in her arms, for the man who was her father. The long absence of her tears made her wonder if she truly was the cold-hearted bitch most people thought she was.

Still, she remained standing there, her arms clutched around her, and her eyes still fixed on the view from the top floor of the newest incarnation of her father's legacy.

From the moment the remaining investors managed to pull the whole thing back together following her father's death, she knew this night would come. She knew that one day she would have to look on the monument to her father's dreams whenever she saw the strip. She knew that there was no way she would be able to avoid the place forever, but it certainly never dawned on her that she would be there to open the place in her father's name.

She managed to make it through the opening ceremonies and most of the party on pure auto-pilot, but when they opened the penthouse suite of the new Rampart, she could no longer handle the people. She somehow managed to slip away from the crowd and into the back bedroom. Originally, she only planned to get away for a few minutes of peace, but when she glanced out the window she was captivated with the view.

Unconsciously, she squeezed her arms more tightly around her, desperately trying to fight off the chill which seemed to have soaked straight through to her very core all night long. It was all just too much for her to deal with any longer; her father's murder, her and Lindsey's abductions, the whole sordid mess with Mike Keppler, and then finding out under the worst possible circumstances about Gil's relationship with Sara.

During the three days it took them to find Sara, she knew that one misstep and the whole thing was going to come down around them. And when she and Nick arrived on the scene, it took every ounce of strength she had to keep it all together. That was proven to her as Gil jumped into the ambulance with Sara and it sped away. The moment she saw those lights begin to pull away, she just collapsed.

She woke up in the hospital a day later, with a room filled with people waiting for her to regain consciousness. Lindsey was draped over her, with her fingers twined within her vacant hand. Her mother was lying on the couch in front of her bed. Her sister was sitting in a chair next to their mother, sleeping just as soundly. But the big surprise came when she went to lift her other hand to wipe some of the fuzz away from her eyes.

With her fingers curling up into the soft surface they rested on, she found that they were actually sitting on another hand. She could not imagine that her brother-in-law would be there, and so she turned her head to see who the hand belonged to. She was not expecting to find the glassy green eyes that met her confused gaze.

Before anything could be said, Lindsey woke with her mother's stirring and everything turned into a whirlwind. Her daughter told her that the doctors said it was a simple case of exhaustion, but that they were all very worried, and that she was not going to let her out of their sight for at least a week so that she would actually rest.

True to her word, Lindsey never let her out of her sight for a full week after she was released from the hospital. And by the time she went back to work, things were more hectic than ever. With Gil and Sara out indefinitely, they were scrambling to keep all of the cases covered. Ecklie even stepped up to handle all of the lab paperwork so that the rest of the CSI's could run cases.

It went on like that for a couple of months, with everyone worrying whether or not their favorite geek couple would ever return to work. When the first of September came upon them, they were all shocked to find them both sitting at the break room table waiting for assignments. She continued running the shift for a couple more weeks, until Gil could get back into things, and so that he could be sure Sara was ready for the strain. However, true to form, they both snapped right back into the routine with very few growing pains. And best yet, the revelation of their relationship actually seemed to help them to a very comfortable place with their work.

She was just getting used to all of the changes herself, when she got the call from the Rampart Group. She cringed when they had broken ground. She would get a little nauseous every time she caught site of the crane, or later when the superstructure became visible from anywhere near the strip. So, she knew the call would be coming, but no matter what, she was never going to be ready for it. The moment she hung up the phone, after they had asked her to stand in for her father at the ribbon cutting that was when she started to feel the cold enter her body.

Her hand ran up and down her arm, trying to warm herself against the icy sensation coursing through her veins, but her gaze was still transfixed on the view of the Vegas skyline from the penthouse of the new Rampart; of the dream turned reality.

Staring out into the night, she knew that if Sam had been there, it would have taken a crowbar to remove the smile from his face. He would have walked the room, one arm around her mother, the other around her or Lindsey, giving each guest a little of that aloof Braun charm he was so well-known for, and he would be running the party and the casino and anything else that needed his attention, all at the same time, and would have never broken a sweat. If there was one thing she knew about her father, it was that he certainly was a smooth and extremely capable business man.

Thinking about her father so fondly, she began to feel a strange warmth reach out to her skin. The corner of her mouth turned up slightly and she sighed, "I hope you're proud now, Sam."

"He'd have been a fool not to be," The warmth draped a jacket over her bare shoulders. "And Sam Braun was no fool."

"He certainly wasn't." The source of the warmth ran his hands up and down her arms, bringing her warmth out of its hiding place to greet his.

"You want me to see if anybody has a shawl for you, or something?" She sank into his warmth, resting her back against his chest.

"Thanks, but I think I'll be fine."

"You sure? You've looked a little cold all night." Warrick rested his heavy hands on top of her shoulders as he looked around to catch a glimpse of her face.

She gave him a timid smile and shook her head. "No, I'm fine…really. I just needed to get away from the crowd for a while."

His deep, resonating laugh vibrated into her back before he said, "Then you're in luck… The party's moved down to the ballroom."

Shrinking a little with the idea of having to leave her view, she tried to find the strength to keep up her end of the deal and follow the party again. "Don't worry about it, Cath…your Mom and Linds are holding court with the masses. In fact…I was sent to keep an eye on you by a very serious blonde, with the cutest dimples."

She quirked an eyebrow in his direction and asked, "Is that so?"

"Oh yeah. I have been instructed to make sure you're okay, that if you need it, I'm supposed to make you rest." He wrapped the rest of his suit jacket around her, and his arms quickly followed the jacket until she was completely enveloped in his soothing warmth. "And if I even suspect you need it, I'm supposed to get you tomorrow night off from work."

"My daughter said all this?" She was going to have a serious talk with Lindsey about just who the parent was in the morning.

"Well… That last part came from your mother." Leaning over, Warrick looked directly into her eyes and added, "You know… She's kinda scary when she wants to be."

With a raised brow for extra emphasis, she answered with, "She is my mother… Where'd you think I got it from?"

His comfortable laughter reverberated through her body with the force of an earthquake, shaking her loose from the last of the chill in her soul. "Got it." He released a heavy sigh, and she felt Warrick relax around her, holding her just a little more firmly than before. "I'll give the guy credit for this… He certainly knew how to pick a spot."

"Sam did have a knack for being in the right place at the-" the rest of her statement was lost when she realized what it implied. She must have stiffened with the thought, because Warrick returned to running his hands up and down her arms, only with a bit more pressure that time.

Instead of launching into one of the many platitudes she had been hearing since her father's death, Warrick simply blew out a nervous breath and continued to massage her arms. "Thanks."

"What for?"

"For not trying to tell me some crap about nothing being my fault, or that he's in a better place, or one of a hundred other stupid sayings." She shook her head with her disgust at the thought of them and added, "I'm just so tired of people acting like they understand, or that those ridiculous little sayings are gonna help me in any way."

She sucked in a trembling breath and felt the walls starting to crack. "He was shot… He was killed… It wasn't okay… We were right in the middle of a real knock down, drag out fight, and some asshole with a gun and a grudge shot him, right there in front of me. I watched the blood pumping out of his body and I held him in my arms while he died. It wasn't a fucking blessing that it was fast. It wasn't the way he wanted to go. And it sure as shit wasn't what I wanted!"

With those last words, the walls fell completely away and her body was instantly wracked with frantic sobs, but somehow she remained upright. Her legs could not possibly hold her up with all her strength gone, and it took a few minutes before she realized that it was not her strength keeping her up, but the warm, strong arms of another, holding her close to him and leaning his head against hers as she continued to wail.

After a while, when the sobs began to subside, she was finally able to find the strength to turn in his embrace and return some of the strength he had given to her. With her face buried in his shirt, she finally choked out, "What is it about you always being so close when I'm falling apart?"

He rested his chin on top of her head and sighed. Warrick was silent for quite a while, and she began to think she had said the wrong thing. Just before she was about to pull away from him, he held her in tighter to his chest and practically whispered, "It's the only time I get to do this."

She gasped with the subtle impact of his carefully uttered words. Pulling away so that she could look at him, she simply had to ask, "What?"

He refused to meet her gaze, leaving his head hanging when he answered, "I'm sorry… I should g-"

"Warrick… Don't." She held his arms in her grasp and squeezed them tightly. "What is it?"

"Look… You've got all this stuff goin' on, and I really shouldn't have said that." He started to pull out of her grasp and turned away from her. "I should probably get outta her-"

Tightening her hold on him, she stood firm and pleaded, "Please… Don't go like this. What's going on?"

"Ya know… Timing just isn't my thing, okay. You've got this stuff you're dealin' with and I don't need to be pulling this kind of crap when you're in such a vulnerable place. And ya know what; this is just a really bad idea." He removed her hands from his arms and put them together before he placed a gentle kiss on the backs of her fingers. "I should go… I'll tell Linds to come check on you later." He dropped her hands and started to walk away. "You've got the suite for the night. So, just kick back and relax. I'll lock up on my way out."

She would never know where the source of her voice came from that night, but despite the confusion and awkwardness of the whole scene, she knew one thing more clearly than anything else in her life at that moment; she did not want him to leave. "Warrick, don't leave me!"

He stopped cold, his hand on the door handle, his back rigid with tension. "Catherine… This isn't the ri-"

Her feet moved of their own accord and she was instantly at his side, her hand on his arm, when she said, "I don't give a damn about what's right or wrong at the moment. I need to know what's going on, Warrick."

His eyes squeezed shut, and she could see the white in the knuckles of his hand as it held onto the door knob. She watched as his chest filled with each heaving breath, and how it shrank with each strained expiration.

Seeing his desperate struggle, she decided to try another tack. With her other hand, she laid it across the middle of his back, and leaned in to say, "If you really want to go…I'll understand, but…" She pulled in a deep breath to supplant her strength and added, "I don't want you go, and I really do want to know what you're thinking."

His breathing increased, and became slightly ragged when he finally said, "I'm thinking…that your hand is on my back." Startled by the intensity in his voice, her hand instantly pulled away from his body. "And how much I want…both of them there."

Feeling the full force of his statement, she was nearly knocked over by all of its implications. Her total shock was short lived, when her natural instincts finally kicked in. She slid her right hand down the length of his arm until she was covering his hand as it wrapped tightly around the handle. Gently, she pulled his hand off of the knob and then led it out of her way as she stepped into the space between him and the door.

He finally looked up to see what she was doing, and she managed to catch his frightened gaze. The fierce emotion she found in those sharp green eyes was enough to send a trickle of anxiety along her spine, but it only served to give her the confidence she needed to continue.

Dropping his hand, she kept her gaze locked with his, an azure stare to pierce through the swirling green pools. Her hands trailed up his finely muscled arms until she reached his shoulders and paused for an interminable moment. When she began to drag her palms down over his chest, Warrick slammed his eyes shut and clenched his fist as he gnashed his teeth.

With only her fingers, she danced along the perfectly defined muscles of his abdomen that were evident even through his dress shirt. When she reached his sides, she flattened her hands into his body and slipped her palms over the expanse of his rigid back until they were firmly pressed into the middle. She felt his gasp through her hair and then she leaned forward to ask him one last question. "Is that all you wanted?"

She half expected that she would need to take another step before he was ready to react, so when his arms wrapped around her and his lips crashed down into hers she actually yelped in astonishment. Her surprise evaporated with the heat of his kiss and she held onto him for all that she was worth when he deepened the kiss. Her knees began to feel weak from the passion he drove into her with each breath he left in her mouth as he tried to capture her soul with his lips.

The instant his tongue reached in and made contact with hers, she simply let go and fell into his embrace. His thick, firm arms held her tight to his body. Without the need to hold her up, her legs began to twine around his, bringing her in just a bit more into the heat being emitted by his taut body. She wanted to get as close as possible to him, to feel his smooth skin, to press her bare skin into him, for his hands to touch every part of her body, to feel each rigid muscle moving beneath his searing flesh, but most of all, she wanted to feel him moving over her, around her, and inside of her.

She wanted him more than anything else she could imagine in that furious moment of passion, and she knew that she had wanted him longer than any man in her life. It all came down to the fact that this was her chance at the dream, and she was going to grab for it with both hands, and wrap her legs around it to keep from losing it this time.

When she tried to move her arms to wrap around his neck and bring herself further up his body, she was stopped as he surged forward and pressed her into the door. Pinned in place by the weight of him, she could only stand there as his lips made their way down to her neck. It left a sizzling trail over her skin in the wake of their fiery touch. But the feel of his lips was nothing compared to the sensation of his wide palm and long fingers dragging up along the outside of her bare thigh as the hem of her dress rose with the scorching path of his hand.

He gasped into the crook of her neck when his finger skirted along the crescent of her ass. But when he used his firm grip to press those fingers fully into the cheek, it was her turn to gasp. The move caused her to throw her head back into the door and exposed her throat to his view. He wasted no time by dragging his lips and tongue over the full length of it. When he ran his nose along the underside of her jaw until he reached the space behind her ear, she managed to get her right hand onto his neck, and she pulled him in closer as he sucked her ear lobe into his blisteringly hot mouth.

His right hand began to circle back to her thigh, moving beneath the fabric of her dress, and then dipped down along the line of her hamstrings until it reached her knee. She felt him gently lift her leg against the length of his until she took over, bringing her knee up and pressing her heel into the back of his leg, losing her shoe on the way. Warrick slid his palm back up to her ass and pulled her into him, grinding her against the perfectly palpable evidence of his arousal. If there was an edge to be thrown over, there was no way for her to see it any longer as he surged forward again, pressing her into the door once more, but this time with the full weight and heat of his desire for her.

Her attention was shifted when he once again took hold of her mouth with his powerful lips. She was so distracted by the sensations his tongue was stirring within her that she failed to notice the activity of his right hand. That was changed the moment his thick finger grazed through her center and he discovered one of her closely kept secrets; she never wore panties when she had on an evening dress. Her alarm caused her to almost nip at the lip she was sucking on at the time, but it was the wicked glint in his delighted eyes that sent the blush to her cheeks. Instead of saying anything in her defense, she reached up and draped her arms over his neck and gave him a kiss with the same emblazoned passion he had given to her.

Taking the cue, he accepted her wordless request and returned to his original plan. His broad grip wrapped around the top of her thigh, with his thumb dipping down into the junction. She could feel the path of his thumb as it moved further toward her core, and then pressed into the folds in its quest to find just the right spot. When the digit made the first tentative touch, her back arched and she involuntarily bucked into his grasp.

He continued to tease at the petals of her sex as his mouth kept her from making an intelligible sound. Her hands kneaded through the rippling flesh of his chest until they had landed on his waist to hold herself steady as he moved to bring his fingers into the game he was playing between her thighs. And when he finally inserted one of those long, strong fingers deep within her center, she really did bite down that time. He was sending her whole body into a furious frenzy of arousal, and she was barely able to contain all of the sensations soaring through her.

Her breath began to follow in a halting pattern of strangled gasps as his fingers started to stroke over and within her in a maddening rhythm. When she could take it no longer, she slipped her hands from the sides of his waist to the front and frantically worked the buckle of his belt off, not even bothering to remove it before moving on to the button of his trousers. She was finally able to escape the rapture of his lips when she ran her fingers down the length of him through the fabric of his pants and he gasped, as he too bucked forward at the sensation.

That gave her just enough leverage to get his pants and underwear down over his hips in one swift motion. Once free of the confines of his clothing, she marveled at the rigidity he possessed as she pressed him up into his belly. When she gripped around him and pumped her hand up and down the engorged shaft she heard and felt the growl that escaped his lips as he reached down around her to grab her up by the ass, and then he brought her off of the floor as she wrapped her slender legs around his waist.

She held him tightly with her well-toned legs, he took his right hand off of her backside and then suddenly, she could feel the head resting at her center. His mouth descended upon hers once more, and she welcomed it with the caress of her tongue along his lower lip. She gripped his body with her legs again as his left hand slipped up to the middle of her back, just before he pushed them into the door and himself into her.

She was unable to restrain the cry that escaped her throat as he plunged into her. Her walls tightened around him; they pulled him in further as he pulled her into him. She held him as tightly as she could when he began to move within her, slowly building up into a crescendo of thrusts, stoking the fires of their combined arousals until she was sure that the door was going to come off of its hinges from the pounding they were both receiving that night.

He must have sensed her concern, because he wrapped both of his arms around her body and lifted her away from the door. She clung to his shoulders as though he was her only rock in the ocean and buried her face into the crook of his neck as he crossed the room with her in his arms.

Laying her down onto the bed, he went down with her, but it still left her with an empty feeling as he was pulled from her center. On their path to the bed he had kicked off his shoes, and somehow managed to free himself of the pants as well. When he sat up on his knees on the bed, he quickly stripped out of the shirt, and as he crawled along the bed to hover over her she was blessed with the full view of his naked body. She tried to memorize every dip and curve, and the lines of each muscle on his perfectly sculpted frame.

Warrick reached up for the zipper on the side of her dress and slowly brought it down to the end, tickling along her ribs as he went. His fingers found the ties at her hip and released the rest of the strapless gown from her form and pushed it aside, giving him his first real look at her bare body. She would have felt horribly self conscious under any other circumstance, but the look of unquenchable desire in his blazing eyes was enough to burn away any doubts she could ever have about his pleasure in seeing her naked form.

When his arms bent, she was sure that it was time to get back to business, but instead he dipped his mouth down to kiss her once more. With her breath effectively taken away by his passionate kiss, she was forced to helplessly wait for him to finish burning a path down her neck with his lips. However, he did not stop there, but continued to lay warm wet kisses over her collarbone, and then down the length of her sternum. He paused for a moment, and she thought he was going to return to her mouth, but that was when she felt him snake his tongue out and trace along the outer edge of her nipple.

As much as she wanted him to continue to tease and please every inch of her body, the ache his motions were creating in her core left her with only one option; she needed him buried within her walls, bringing her home to a climax before she lost her mind.

She grabbed both sides of his head and brought him back to her mouth so that he could understand the depth of her desires and frustrations. Once his eyes met hers, she poured every ounce of passion into them that she could muster and simply breathed, "Take me."

He seemed to understand exactly what she meant, because he took the last of her brief words with his mouth over hers. Reaching down, he grabbed her leg and brought it up with her foot resting flat on the bed. Warrick pushed back on his knees for a moment, but when he came back to hover over her he was holding himself up with only one arm. When his body began to fall into hers, his lips led the way, and just as they crashed into hers, he entered her again, sinking into her with the gasp he robbed from her throat with his kiss.

His arms slipped beneath her as he rested on his elbows and began to slowly arch into her with a deliberately gradual rhythm. Little by little, he began to increase the pace and depth of his strokes, she brought her bent leg up to wrap around him to encourage him even deeper within her walls.

The long, deep and tortuously slow thrusts were bringing her body into a fury of sexual tension that was practically begging to be released. The sheen of perspiration that fell over both of their bodies spoke of the toll their joining was taking out of them, and the only thing on her mind was that she never wanted it to end, but she really wanted him to hurry up and get there before she exploded from the buildup.

Burying his face into her shoulder, he managed to strangle out, "I don't…know…how much…longer…I can…hold…out."

With her leg, she pulled him down into her with such a force that she nearly cried out from the sensation, and held him tightly in her arms when she asked once again, but with more conviction, "Take me, now."

The message was finally received and he held her around the shoulders with his one arm as the other was planted into the mattress and he reared back before thrusting into her with the arcing motion of his hips and curling of his back. Up and out, down and in; pumping his body in a circular thrusting that forced him to begin hammering into her, filling her to the brink with the full impact of his being.

The spasms started in her belly and spread out through her entire body as he continued to pound away inside of her. She held onto him for fear that letting go would make her vanish completely when she became lost in the ether of her orgasm.

When she started to be able to string together two thoughts in a row, she found that her body was still feeling the effects of the intense climax as small muscle contractions were still flitting through her, all the way to the core. The next thought that made it into her conscious mind was that Warrick's heavy, overheated and very sexy body was pressing her into the mattress, but she really could have cared less. Instead, she held him to her tighter and laid tender kisses into his shoulder.

As she felt him stir, she wondered what it was that had finally brought them to this point. Warrick rolled over onto his back, but with their arms intertwined around each other, he simply pulled her over with him until she was resting her head in the center of his chest. He slowly drew in a full breath, raising her up with the inhalation, and allowing her to sink down into him as he blew the breath out in a calming rush.

He chuckled slightly and she sat up to look into his eyes. "What is it?"

"Oh, it's nothing…" He inhaled again and she enjoyed being able to feel the rush of air on her skin when he released the breath before he asked, "I was just wondering…about how the reality stacks up to the dream? Because for me…there's just no comparison." His solid arms brought her back down into his sleepy embrace.

Stroking his chest as she thought about his question, she was brought back to the words of her father and it was her turn to start chuckling. "Reality… That's what keeps 'em coming back for more."


End file.
